The trial of James Craig before the Court of history

Anthony Russell’s imaginative political and historical fantasy examines the role played by the Orange Order in the social and political development of Ulster over the last 300 years. Was it guilty of treason?

In the Court of History James Craig, Lord Craigavon, ‘a man hewn from the rocks of Ulster’ is called from the grave to represent the Orange Order. Sir Edward Carson, the leader of Irish unionism, defends Craig. The prosecutor is John Mitchel, an unrepentant physical force Irish republican, American Confederate, and supporter of slavery.

Thomas D’Arcy McGee, a leader of the 1848 Rebellion, who was assassinated because he bitterly opposed the Fenian invasions of Canada is called as a witness. McGee died a colonial loyalist and a founding Father of the Canadian Confederation. 80,000 attended his funeral in Montreal.

Mrs Elisabeth Crozier, a Presbyterian farmer’s wife, ‘relives’ the horror of her death in the Altnaveigh Massacre; carried…